UVa 2nd ever with 3 of top 20, brackets, ACC makes Final 4 in board game

Three final wrap up notes before UVa and Texas Tech wrap up the college basketball season; 1, the updated www.valueaddbasketball.com records calculate that UVa is the first team since the 2002 Duke team (Carlos Boozer, Jay Williams and Mike Dunleavy) to have three of the 20 Most Valuable Players in the country. Zion Williamson did pass Anthony Davis but not Coach K's top assistant Jon Scheyer who was worth 14.35 extra points a game in 2010.

Rnk Player Team Value Add Conf 1 Zion Williamson #1 Duke 14.08 ACC 2 Dedric Lawson #1 Kansas 12.21 B12 3 Matt Rafferty #32 Furman 12.07 SC 4 Cassius Winston #5 Michigan St. 11.74 B10 5 Brandon Clarke #15 Gonzaga 11.3 WCC 6 CJ Massinburg #5 Buffalo 11.06 MAC 7 Grant Williams #2 Tennessee 11.03 SEC 8 Ja Morant #12 Murray St. 10.9 OVC 9 Ty Jerome #11 Virginia 10.75 ACC 10 Myles Powell #13 Seton Hall 10.56 BE 11 RJ Barrett #5 Duke 10.23 ACC 12 Shamorie Ponds #2 St. John's 10.22 BE 13 Jordan Murphy #3 Minnesota 10.02 B10 14 Dylan Windler #3 Belmont 9.97 OVC 15 Kyle Guy #5 Virginia 9.7 ACC 16 Jeremiah Martin #3 Memphis 9.69 Amer 17 Jarrett Culver #23 Texas Tech 9.69 B12 18 Sam Merrill #5 Utah St. 9.58 MWC 19 De'Andre Hunter #12 Virginia 9.52 ACC 20 Ethan Happ #22 Wisconsin 9.45 B10

2, We published eight approaches to filling in the bracket in the Western Journal, and if Virginia wins five of the eight will be above the 90th percentile. The system that picked UVa (and only 8 percent of all brackets did) selected them based on the Value Add rankings adjusted for experienced guards. It is interesting that this system could rise to the top - while the system picking the team with the most NBA talent was the one bracket to once again have a terrible year. It seems hard to win with one-and-dones.



3, The All-ACC team dominated the East in the Value Add Basketball dice game, and the incredible group of stars this year caught a rebuilding Big East to win the Eastern Bracket in the 32 Conference simulated tournament. The ACC beat the MEAC by 30 and Ivy League by 40, before Sharmorie Ponds (St. John's) and All-American Markus Howard (Marquette) hit three pointers on three straight trips to cut the ACC lead to 26-25, but the ACC took over after that. Auburn's Jared Harper is the starting point guard for the SEC and Purdue's Carsen Edwards for the Big Ten, so if they win the South and Midwest in the simulated games then perhaps they will beat Virginia's stars after such near misses in the tournament. Anyone can play simulated games for free here.

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